RUSSIAN CAMPAIGN

242
NURSERY NEWS

TO THE COUNTESS DE MONTESQUIOU, GOVERNESS OF THE
CHILDREN OF FRANCE

KONIGSBERG, JtttU 16, l8l2.

I HAVE received your letter of June 6th. I can assure you
of my satisfaction at the care you take of the King. I hope
to hear from you soon that he has cut his last four teeth. I
have arranged to pay the nurse all you asked: you can
inform her of this.

., xxiii, i88oz.]

243
PUTTING RUSSIA IN THE WRONG

TO ALEXANDER, EMPEROR OF RUSSIA

VlLNA,/»/X I, 1812.

I HAVE received Your Majesty's letter. The war which
set our states at issue was brought to an end by the treaty
of Tilsit. I attended the conference on the Niemen resolved
not to make peace until I had secured all the advantages
offered by my situation. Accordingly I refused to meet the
King of Prussia there. Your Majesty said to me, *I will
act as second in your duel with England.* This remark
altered everything: its corollary was the treaty of Tilsit.
At a later date Your Majesty desired that certain modifica-
tions should be made in the treaty: you wished to keep
Moldavia and Wallachia, and to extend your frontier to the
Danube. You negotiated; and this important modification
of the treaty of Tilsit, with all the advantages it carried for
Your Majesty, followed from the Convention of Erfurt.
Apparently, about the middle of 1810, Your Majesty wished
for fresh modifications in the treaty of Tilsit. There were

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